Who Gives A Hoot About Oktoberfest?

Oct. 1st in the Boundary Bay Brewery beer garden

We’re gearing up for our own Oktoberfest celebration here at Boundary Bay Brewery and we were wondering how many other people out there loved this awesome beer celebration like we do?  As it turns out, lots and lots and LOTS of people give a hoot about Oktoberfest!

Oktoberfest is a sixteen-day festival held each year in Munich, Germany during late September (and running to early October.) It is one of the most famous events in Germany and the world’s largest fair, with some six million people attending every year.  The Munich Oktoberfest, traditionally, takes place during the sixteen days up to and including the first Sunday in October and is an important part of Bavarian culture.

The original “Oktoberfest” occurred in Munich, on October 18, 1810 and by 1960, the Oktoberfest had turned into an enormous world-famous festival.  Today, the idea of Oktoberfest has spread like wildfire – with festivals happening in Argentina, Colombia, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Palestinian territories (to name just a few!).  It’s even inspired fictional festivities…in World of Warcraft there is a “Brewfest” event that takes place in early October each year.  What can we say?  People know a good idea when they see one!

For our Boundary Bay Oktoberfest, we’ve planned festivities in our Beer Garden to celebrate craft beer.  It all kicks off at 4 pm on Thursday, October 1st when we’ll be tapping a very special Firkin Keg of Harvest Ale that has hops from our very own beer garden in it!  The Boundary Bay Harvest Ale is a red-orange beer with rich malty flavors. This is our Autumn seasonal beer that bears only a distant connection to the German “Oktoberfest” style from which it gets its inspiration.  Our take on the Oktoberfest style results in a  full bodied beer with maltiness as the predominate flavor…perfect for our cool fall evenings.  We’ll be serving up a special Oktoberfest menu too, so dust off your Lederhosen and get on down here.

This is the kind of celebration where families are welcome and costumes are encouraged.  To prove our point, here are a couple pics from last year’s Oktoberfest right here at Boundary Bay Brewery:

Join us on Thursday, October 1st for Oktoberfest…Boundary Bay Brewery style!  The show starts at 4pm with the tapping of the Firkin Keg.  Maybe you can be the one to shout out “O’zapft is” (Angezapft ist) or “It’s tapped!”, the cry that goes up every year when the Lord Mayor of Munich hammers a spigot into the very first keg of Oktoberfest beer.  See you there!  

Oktoberfest in the land of The Hop King

This last weekend I attended the fourth annual Oktoberfest Northwest at the Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup, WA.  Before heading to this celebration, I was merely intrigued by this particular festival’s attempts at recreating an authentic Oktoberfest experience that is as much like the real deal in Munich as possible.  There was a Munich-inspired Biergarten (beer garden for those who don’t speak German!), authentic costumes and folk dancing, as well as traditional treats such as handmade German pretzels, strudel, and schnitzel.  Beers served at this Oktoberfest were limited to official beers of the Munich Oktoberfest and included Paulaner’s Weizen and Oktoberfest, Hofbrauhaus’s Oktoberfest and Lager, and Hacker-Pschorr’s Oktoberfest Marzen.  There were games like Hammerschlagen and Holey Boards to while away the hours and a Miss Oktoberfest Northwest who spent the day swinging from the rafters on a swing as you would find in the beer hall in Munich.

Miss Oktoberfest Northwest on her swing

Alpine horn

Oktoberfest revelers

I came to see this authentic representation of Oktoberfest and found that history was being honored in more than one way.  Ezra Meeker, city planner of Puyallup, made more than half a million dollars in 1883 from the Puyallup valley’s crop of hops and became known as the Hop King of the World.  The fertile soil and temperate climate of the Puyallup Valley made the area ideal for growing hops and hops alone brought over $20 million dollars to Puyallup’s economy between 1865 and 1891.  Unfortunately, in 1891 hop lice and downy mildew ended the boom and the hop craze ended.  Many farmers switched to berries and flower bulbs which are still a large part of the local economy.  Today, only one or two hop kilns remain in the area as a reminder of a long ago way of life.